


Kuron

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Voltron Oneshots [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Lotor is a villain, Mind Control, Minor Character Death, Missions Gone Wrong, Shiro (Voltron) Has a Clone, Sniper Lance (Voltron), Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-07 03:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14661972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: On a stealth mission to take out Lotor and his generals, things don't go quite to plan, and Keith winds up on the wrong end of Narti's mind control.





	Kuron

**Author's Note:**

> Ok this fic is set during season four and the majority of it was written before season five. I'm still upset that they killed Narti, she had so much potential.

They finally had him. After months of painstaking tracking and harrowing intelligence missions, they finally knew where Lotor was hiding. They could finally take him down.

Well, ‘they’ meaning the Blade of Marmora. Keith scowled slightly, remembering his conversation with Team Voltron. They couldn’t help, you see, because they had a  _ show _ . 

“Gaining allies,” Allura had said in her pompous princess voice, “Is the most important thing right now.”

Keith had alternated between arguing and begging with both her and Shiro, but neither of them would budge. To them, somehow, the coalition was more important than taking down the current  _ emperor of the Galra _ .

_ Whatever, _ Keith thought, making sure his mask was secure.  _ We don’t need Voltron to do this.  _ They would get in, fast and quiet, and take out Lotor and his generals before anyone even knew that they were there. The strike team was small; just him, Kolivan, and two others Keith hadn’t learned the names of. He’d learned to stop getting attached to team members after Regris. 

Kolivan nudged his arm, breaking him out of his reverie. They were getting close. Keith had to focus, had to forget about Voltron and Regris and everyone else and focus on doing his part. His job was to locate and take out Acxa, the one he’d saved in the belly of the weblum.

_ If I had known, I would’ve left her there to rot _ .

The ship they were in gave a small warning beep, and then the ramp on the back of it slowly began to lower, the vacuum of space tugging at the four masked individuals. One by one, they threw themselves out into the stars, using their jetpacks to guide themselves to the side wall of Lotor’s base. Kolivan planted a small explosive, and one blast later, they were in the vent system. Here they split up, each going their own way to track down their targets. He scrambled through the vents for about a minute, adrenaline pounding in his ears, before he arrived at a screen, and peered cautiously through the slats. He appeared to be just outside a large hangar, though he couldn’t quite see what was parked in it. 

_ Doesn’t matter. Just gotta find Acxa. _

Drawing his knife, he wedged it between the edge of the screen and the wall. 

_ Tap.  _

Keith froze, listening carefully. Everything was silent, almost eerily, and his stomach clenched a little. Shouldn’t he be able to hear soldiers talking or walking around? He stayed still for another moment, listening for the sound that had startled him before, but it didn’t come again. Gritting his teeth, he went back to trying to pry the screen off. 

_ Tap tap _ .

Keith glanced sharply behind him, but saw nothing but the long expanse of empty vents behind him. Something wasn’t right, he could feel it. His first instinct was to call a trap and back off, but he only had ten dobashes to get this done. He couldn’t miss his chance. So, slowly, carefully, he turned back to his knife again. 

_ Tap tap tap _ .

This time he yanked his knife out of the gap and whirled around, just in time for someone to drop down right in front of him from a vent above. All he saw was a hood and an eyeless face before he was being kicked. 

He slid, his back slamming against the screen. It gave and fell, his inertia carrying him through the opening with it. He was in freefall for a moment, and then he crashed to the floor of the hangar, all of his breath knocked out of him. Thankfully it hadn’t been that far of a fall, nothing felt broken, so as quickly as he could he rolled back onto his feet. His attacker had followed him into the hangar, and now stood across from him, waiting. 

Keith recognized this one from Kolivan’s briefing. No eyes, long lizard-like tail, always has a cat on her heels. More importantly, she wasn’t supposed to be his target. He could screw up the entire mission if he took her down. But as it appeared, he didn’t have much of a choice. 

He wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his dagger more securely, holding his ground, waiting for her to make a move. But she stayed still, not even seeming bothered. He ground his teeth, very conscious of his time running out the longer he stood there. He had to do something. 

He lunged, feinting to the right. She took the bait and moved to block, and he quickly changed direction, spinning to the left and aiming his blade at her side. She smoothly dodged the blow, ending up behind him. He spun, hoping to catch her, but she stepped back at the last moment, her tail wrapping around his shin. With a stiff yank, she pulled his feet out from under him and he hit the floor, hard.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Keith knew he was taking too long, making too much noise. He jackknifed to his feet and swiped for her again, but the general just moved back languidly. She looked as if she was barely even trying, like Keith wasn’t even worth her full energy. He swung for her again and again, trying to come at her from every side and remain unpredictable, but she dodged every blow. He found himself wishing in vain for his bayard with it’s longer reach. 

He aimed a particularly hard back hand towards her face, and this was the blow she chose to block, their forearms forming a cross when they slammed together. For a moment they just stood there and stared at each other (Well, Keith stared) his muscles trembling with the effort. Fast, faster than him, her leg came up and kicked him right in the head. 

He stumbled back, feeling his mask break and fall to the floor with a clang. He managed to remain upright and raised his knife to her again, eyes flashing. But she had vanished. He spun in a frantic circle, but she was already behind him, grabbing his wrist and twisting it behind him harshly, forcing him down with a knee on his back. 

He struggled angrily, but she didn’t budge, and yanked his arm upwards to force him to drop the blade. Keith clenched his jaw and waited for her to finish him off…

But at that moment he heard footsteps. His heart sank. If it had been one of the Blades, he wouldn’t have heard them coming. So it could only be-

“Looks like you caught the last one.” said a sickly sweet voice. Keith peered upwards, and recognized the general he had fought that day with the other paladins. The acrobatic pink one. “Good job Narti.”

A purple face joined the pink one, and with a scowl Keith realized that was his target. “What about the others, Ezor?” she asked, looking down at their prisoner with cold eyes. 

“Two of them are dead.” replied Ezor, and Keith tried not to feel the pang in his chest. “The big one got away though. Too bad, Lotor was really looking forward to interrogating him.”

_ The whole thing really was a trap. At least Kolivan got out.  _

“We have something better now.” replied Acxa. “A paladin of Voltron.”

Crap. She recognized him too. 

Ezor tilted her head at him, and her eyes lit up. “Oh yeah, I remember you! You’re the one with the sword!” Keith snarled at her, and she giggled. 

“Sit him up, Narti.” Acxa ordered, rolling her eyes at Ezor’s antics. “Lotor will be here any minute.” 

“He’s going to have so many fun questions for you.” Ezor cooed as Narti manipulated Keith, pulling him back upright before forcing him to his knees. Cold steel wrapped around his wrists, and he heard the slight  _ whoomp _ as the cuffs locked together. 

_ Damnit _ .

This was bad. Kolivan was not going to come back for him, he knew that, and he probably wouldn’t tell Voltron about what had gone wrong either. It was up to him to get himself out of this mess. 

He glanced around subtly, trying to figure out where he was. The hangar was huge, with a high towering ceiling. The walls looked like normal, slightly purple galra metal, but the floor was a shiny silver. Several feet to his right was a railing overlooking some sort of construction, though at this point he couldn’t quite tell what they were constructing. Fifty feet in front of him was a door, presumably the one Ezor and Acxa had come through. 

Still standing behind him, Narti pulled his hood off and rested her hand on the back of his neck. He did his best to suppress the shiver that ran down his spine at the touch of her cold claws. 

The door opened, and Keith felt his lip curl involuntarily at the sight of Prince Lotor and the last of his four generals. The Prince’s insufferable smirk made Keith want to punch it right off of him. 

As he got closer, Lotor widened his eyes and his smirk in mock glee. 

“A Voltron paladin? This must be my lucky day!” He stopped his advance a few feet in front of Keith, and Narti pressed lightly on the back of his neck to make him look up. “Forgive me,” he continued with a sick grin, “But I’m just awful with faces. Remind me which color paladin you are?”

Keith spat at his feet, and Lotor laughed. “It’s always so amusing when they try to resist.” he cackled. “Narti, if you would.”

He felt cold fingers twining into his hair, and barely had time to feel panicked before  _ something _ slammed into his mind. 

The sheer force of… whatever it was knocked the breath out of him, as if he’d just been hit by a truck. He could feel it crawling through his head, picking through his memories one by one. He tried to fight it off, tried to use the same techniques he used on the training deck with the others to force the thing out. But it was too powerful.

“Now.” He could barely hear Lotor anymore, like he was speaking from the other side of a wall. “Which color paladin are you?”

Unbidden, a memory surged forth in his mind. Clinging desperately to a console, being harshly knocked off by debris, rocketing out into space… and then the maw of the Red Lion, opening in front of him.

His mouth opened, and he tried frantically to close it again. He succeeded in grinding his teeth, but he still couldn’t stop himself from grunting out an answer.

“Red.”

“Ah.” said Lotor, sounding slightly disappointed. “A shame it wasn’t black. And why, Red Paladin, are you not with the other paladins in your pretty Altean castle?”

This time, he saw the other’s faces, all glaring at him with disappointment or anger. A black hole opened up in his chest, and even though he still tried to bite back the answer, he was beginning to realize it was pointless.

“They didn’t want me.”

He had his eyes clenched shut tight, so he didn’t see Lotor’s surprised and slightly mocking expression. 

“Oh, trouble in paradise, eh?” he crooned. “Tell me,  _ former  _ Red Paladin, how did a human wind up working with the Blade of Marmora?”

Now there was the memory of pain as he clenched his knife in his hand, being decimated by wave after wave of Blades during the trials.

“I’m… half.” He was fighting harder now to keep his mouth shut, and noted with pleasure it seemed to be working, at least a little.

“Half what?” Lotor pressed, and he had to let the rest of it slip.

“Galra.”

There was dead silence for a full minute, Lotor and his generals gazing at each other in shock. 

“Oh.” Lotor said, a dark note creeping into his voice. “How  _ delightful _ . I’m sure Princess Allura took that news well.” He made a slight humming noise, thinking to himself, and then gave his companions a toothy smile. “Ladies, I think it’s time we had a chat with the Paladins.”

Narti tugged on his hair, and he got to his feet without wanting to. He had to open his eyes to see where he was going, and he used the opportunity to glare holes into the back of Lotor’s head. But inside, he was beginning to freak out. 

_ He could make me tell him anything. Everything. I won’t be able to stop him _ .

Narti didn’t release him for a moment as the six of them went deeper into the base, probably able to sense every thought he had about escape. He was well and truly, in every sense of the word, utterly fucked. 

They wound up in some sort of control room, blinking with the typical galra green and purple lights. Acxa immediately went to the console and began working away without any direction from Lotor. Beside Keith, the last general, Zethrid, pressed the hilt of his knife into his hands. 

_ What? Why is she giving me my knife?  _

Narti was still controlling him like some sort of sick puppet master, so he couldn’t do anything with it yet. And he feared, if Zethrid had given it to him, it was probably for a bad reason. 

The screen in front of them flickered, and then a video link opened. Keith’s stomach dropped clear through the floor when Allura’s surprised face appeared, and he looked down. If Lotor made him say he had switched sides, he didn’t want to be looking at their faces when he said it. 

“Lotor.” Allura’s voice was cold and hard, prickling with malice. “How did you find us?” Keith heard footsteps through the link, probably the others gathering around to see what was going on. 

“Princess Allura.” Lotor greeted easily, as though they had bumped into each other at the grocery store. “I’m so glad we finally found a chance to talk.”

“What do you want?” Allura snarled. “I’m sure it’s not just to trade pleasantries.”

“Alas, your instincts are correct. I’m contacting you today to negotiate the surrender of Voltron.”

Allura snorted. “And why in the hell would we  _ ever  _ do that.”

Narti pulled harshly on Keith’s hair, forcing him to look up into the screen. A chorus of gasps and shocked expressions greeted him. As he had predicted, everyone was gathered in front of the screen, and all of them wore varying masks of terror or fury. Keith wanted to scream to them so badly, warn them not to listen to Lotor, not to give him anything. But with Narti’s vise grip on him, all he could do was choke on the words. Luckily for him, Shiro seemed to be on the same page.

He gave Keith a long look through the video, and then swallowed hard. “We’re not giving you anything, Lotor.” he said, his voice much stronger than his confidence.

“Really? That’s a shame.” The cuffs around Keith’s wrists demagnetized, but he still couldn’t do anything Narti didn’t want him to. His muscles twitched, and slowly Narti made him raise his own blade to his throat. 

“Keith, what are you  _ doing _ ?” Lance whispered with sad eyes. Keith looked at him helplessly, and through sheer force of will, managed to force a couple of words through his lips.

“Lance- don’t-” Narti slammed into him again, making him cut himself off with a wince. 

“Oh don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” said Lotor, inspiring a truly glorious glare from Lance. “Rest assured your former colleague doesn’t want to be doing any of this. But unfortunately for him, what he wants makes very little difference.”

With a small nudge from Narti, Keith pressed forward and nicked his throat with the blade, hissing as the skin opened. 

“I’ll be sending you coordinates soon.” Lotor was saying. “I look forward to seeing you there with my new ships.” With that, the video link closed.

* * *

 

There was a long moment of silence in the Castle after Lotor’s face disappeared from the screen, all of them stunned to voicelessness. 

Shiro was the first to speak. “Alright, team, let’s not panic.”

“Not panic?” Lance burst out, unable to hold in his terror. “ _ Not panic?!  _ Keith is being held  _ captive  _ by Lotor and his  _ mind control alien _ , and you’re telling us not to  _ panic?!” _

“Yeah, I’m with Lance.” Hunk said. “I’m pretty close to panicking.”

“I knew it!” Pidge cried indignantly. “I knew we shouldn’t have let them go in alone!” 

“Yes, thank you Pidge.” said Allura, more than a little snappishly. 

“Oh, don’t take that tone with me  _ Princess _ .” The younger girl snarled back. “I’m not the one who gave up a massive tactical advantage in favor of reenacting Yuri on fucking Ice.”

“Ok, ok!” Shiro exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air to get everyone’s attention. “Assigning blame isn’t going to help us, and it certainly isn’t going to help Keith. What we need is a plan.”

Lance scowled, but had to admit Shiro was right. Still, he couldn’t quite get over how Keith had looked at him. He looked terrified, his pupils the size of pinpricks. And he wouldn’t forget how Lotor’s creepy blind general had made him cut himself. What else would she make him do if they didn’t play along?

He didn’t want to think about it.

* * *

 

Keith spent the next few hours locked in a cell- or maybe it would be more accurate to say a broom closet. It was barely big enough for him to sit in, no windows, and was completely pitch dark. He tried to find a way out, but they had taken his knife again, which left him with basically nothing. All he could do was pray the team wouldn’t do what Lotor said. Even if Lotor made them watch as he sliced himself into a million tiny pieces, it would still be better than Voltron falling into Galra hands because of him. 

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before the door to his cage suddenly swung open, blinding him with the sudden light. When he had finally blinked away the sunspots, he saw Lotor smirking down at him, Narti behind.

“Time to go on a field trip, paladin.”

Lotor’s meeting place was a small, cold planet near his base. It had enough oxygen on it to keep Keith alive, but that didn’t guarantee it would be comfortable. They gave him his knife, and Narti kept a tight hand on his collar as they marched towards the decided upon location. To his dismay, when they crested the final hill, he saw all five lions sitting in the valley beyond. 

_ No, no, why did you listen to him? _

As they got closer, and he was finally able to see clearly through the swirling, stinging dust storm, he realized there were only four paladins. Lance was nowhere to be seen.

As soon as he thought it, he pushed it away. He didn’t want Narti to notice. 

“Princess Allura.” Lotor called through the wind, opening his arms wide. “I’m so glad we could come to an agreement.”

Allura didn’t rise to the bait. “Let him go, Lotor.” she commanded, looking stern in her pink paladin armor. Lotor raised a hand, and Narti pulled Keith back against her, tangling her claws in his hair once again. He felt her control returning, and his entire body tensed up. She wasn’t just gripping him now, it was like she was squeezing, and it  _ hurt _ .

“Not quite yet, princess.” Lotor said with a wicked smile. “First, I want to test the lions.”

“We cannot guarantee they will accept you or your minions.” Allura spat out, disgusted with him. “The lions choose their pilots.” 

“Well,” growled the Galra prince, “You’ll just have to hope they choose correctly. For your friend’s sake.” Keith’s fingers tightened around his dagger, angling it to catch the faint sunlight. Allura saw, and clenched her jaw tightly. 

Lotor started to take a step forward, and then everything went into slow motion. There was a loud, distant bang. Half a second later, Keith heard a high pitched whine, just above his ear, felt some of his hair get tossed aside- and then suddenly Narti’s presence was gone,  _ ripped _ from him in less than a moment.

He heard her body crumple to the ground, but he felt it before he knew it. Narti was dead. Keith’s knees weakened, his body wanted to slump to the ground like a puppet with it’s strings cut, but he wouldn’t let it. As weapons were pulled on both sides, he tossed his knife into the air, caught it with his other hand, and rushed into the fray.

* * *

 

It was an intense battle, but it was six against four, and eventually Lotor and his generals were forced to flee, leaving Narti’s body behind. The paladins returned to the Castle, triumphant and grinning, all of them giving Keith happy hugs once they arrived. That is, everyone except Shiro, who stalked past him without looking, shoulder checking him as he went.

Keith almost fell over from the blow, and looked up at his brother, incredulous at Shiro’s angry expression. 

“Shiro, what-”

“How could you be so  _ stupid _ , Keith?” Shiro snapped, his voice cold. Everyone froze and stared in confusion. “How could you be sloppy enough to get yourself captured?” 

Keith felt himself shut down, crossing his arms and folding in his shoulders. His stomach dropped, his heart leapt into his throat, whatever other metaphor you can possibly imagine for complete terror mixed with despair and stabbing pain, insert it here. 

Shiro had never spoken to him like this.  _ Never _ . Not once, no matter what stupid shit he pulled. He had always been patient, and supportive, and tried to help. But now… now he almost looked like he hated him. 

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t-” he stuttered, but Shiro cut him off. 

“You put the whole team at risk. You put Voltron at risk. Damnit, you put the whole fucking  _ universe _ at risk, Keith! Even when you’re gone, you’re still the same thing you’ve always been; a reckless, impatient, insubordinate  _ liability _ .”

Keith reeled back as though he had been struck. He felt tears pricking at the backs of his eyes, but he clenched his jaw and didn’t let them fall. He wouldn’t let the others see him cry, even if all he wanted to do was drop through a black hole right now. But hey, silver lining, he had been right to leave. He was right, none of them wanted him here, not even Shiro. 

Out of nowhere, he felt an arm snaking around his shoulders, and he just about jumped out of his skin. And he just about did it again when he saw who it was.

“What the hell, Shiro?” Lance snarled, squeezing Keith’s shoulder. His expression was just as cold as Shiro’s, but there was red hot rage boiling underneath it. 

“Yeah, that’s not fair!” Pidge exclaimed, putting her small body between Keith and Shiro with a little hop. “If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s ours for making him go in alone!”

“Where did that come from, Shiro?” Hunk demanded, coming up behind Keith and Lance. His body heat was almost like a shield, and it calmed Keith ever so slightly, even if he still couldn’t believe what was happening right now. “You didn’t yell at Allura when she got captured!”

“We never speak to another team member like that.” Allura said in her princess voice, moving to stand alongside Pidge. “Never.”

Coran, standing in the background, didn’t move, but he was muttering something to himself. “This is strange.” he murmured. “Very strange.”

Keith agreed completely. Here was Shiro, the one who had never given up on him, yelling at him and calling him a liability, while the rest of the team, the ones Keith had pushed away, stood up for him. For a moment he wondered if he had somehow crossed into an alternate reality. Would Slav pop up somewhere and start screaming about the risks of a heart attack during a serious conversation?

Shiro growled at all of them. “Keith isn’t a team member anymore. Remember? He left.”

“Only because we pushed him away.” Lance countered, giving Keith another squeeze. “Something has been off with you ever since you got back, what the hell happened?”

“Gee, it might have something to do with being a galra prisoner.” Shiro snarled back. “And I’d like to remind all of you that Keith is one of them.”

The room exploded in noise again, but Keith didn’t really hear any of it. He was just staring at Shiro, feeling like he’d been shot. Is this really what Shiro had thought of him, this whole time? Had he been biting back hatred and disgust ever since the trials? Before that? Hell… maybe his whole relationship with Shiro, this whole time, had been nothing but fake charity. Maybe Shiro had never actually cared about him at all. If he had felt like being swallowed up by a black hole before, he was practically collapsing into one now. 

“Who  _ are  _ you?!” Pidge shrieked, taking several steps back from Shiro. “There’s no way you’re actually Shiro.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Pidge?” Shiro snapped, shaking his head in annoyance and clenching his fists. 

“Shiro never talked to any of us like that.” insisted the green paladin. “Let alone Keith.” She narrowed her hazel eyes dangerously. “Give me your arm.”

“What?”

“I said, give me your arm.” Pidge reached out and grabbed hold of Shiro’s galra prosthetic, holding it up to the light emanating from her bracer. 

“What are you doing?” Shiro ground out between clenched teeth, hanging onto his temper by a thread. 

“Scanning you.” Pidge replied, even though that didn’t tell anybody anything, and released his arm a few seconds later. A blue screen popped up in front of her, and she tapped away with it with her other hand.

“I knew it!”

“Knew what?” Asked Lance, and Pidge whirled triumphantly. 

“His arm, it’s different than it was before.”

“It probably just got banged up-” Hunk tried to intercept, but Pidge cut him off with a glare.

“No, Hunk, the entire molecular structure of this thing is different. This arm was made new for him while he was with the galra. And why would they do that?”

“Maybe his broke?” Lance offered, though his voice was confused. 

“Maybe, but if you put this together with the long hair, Black not accepting him, and his weird behavior…” All of them turned back to Shiro with suspicious eyes, and his expression morphed into one of shock. 

“What? Pidge, what are you saying? I’m still me!”

Keith, for once in his life, had no idea what to do. He didn’t want to believe it, didn’t want to believe he had been tricked by the Galra for so long, but at the same time he almost did. If this wasn’t Shiro, then maybe nothing he said was true either. And everything Pidge had said did make sense. 

“Well, if that’s true, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Pidge responded cryptically, and then she and Allura pulled their bayards. 


End file.
